Silence
by Dragonex12
Summary: The collapse left an ever lasting winter. Will is a survivor. This will follow his journey surviving in the unforgiving world. (Rated T for blood violence and some swearing)
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1: Prologue **_

He awoke to black. Nothing but black, which after a few days of this he should be used to it. But for some reason every time he always wondered if he was dead. Every morning was the same just black as he wondered if this was what death was, because he would not be surprised if he did die in his sleep. So he was sort of expecting it to happen someday, whether by wolf, or freezing to death, another survivor killing him in his sleep and taking his possessions. With what do world was death would not surprise him. He snapped out of his thoughts when the wind howled outside and creak of the cabin office let him know he was still alive. He looked at his watch squinting to see the dying light of his digital watch. _3:00 am_, he sighed and tried to get back to sleep. He knew it wouldn't come but it was worth a shot. Sleep never came easily but now it was a rare occurrence, because it's pretty hard to sleep in an apocalypse of sorts. While he was sure this was a large disaster apocalypse's usually don't end, and he was hoping and praying to a god he barely believed in everyday for it to go back to the way it was not even two weeks ago. Some part of him knew that would never happen but he tried to bury that. As he lay there he thought it was stunning how much life could change in such a short time span. Everything was so different, His lifestyle, the world, and so much else. After about thirty or so minuets he slowly drifted back to sleep knowing it was not much better there than it was here.

His dreams were similar to how they always were, before the collapse, the collapse happening, death, wolves, all things he commonly dreamed about recently. But this one was one of the bad ones, involving his brother. They were driving down the road going to a lake side cabin they usually took with a good friend of theirs but he couldn't come this year because of work and things of that sort. So it was just them, driving down the road, listening to the good ol' stuff. Whether it be rock, jazz, or a talk show, it was good so they listened. Plus there wasn't any other station up in the mountains so they were stuck with whatever was on. About a mile away from the cabin he was about to ask his brother something when everything went white with light and they were rammed in the side by on a truck coming down the intersection. Everything jerked sideways with such force he thought he broke a rib. Everything was turning with such a force he his entire body was in pain as they did their final flip, everything went slow he saw the truck flipping down the hill towards them, and as he turned to look at his brother everything went black.

He awoke with a jump almost falling off his bed. He disliked all his dreams of late but that one took spot number one. It wasn't pitch black as it usually was. Faded sunlight streamed through the window as it was covered in a thin layer of snow. He looked around always in paranoia of the shadows the room still had. He quickly turned his storm lantern on, which was rather dim, and hooked it on the hook in the ceiling. He made a mental note to look for kerosene on his next trip scavenging for what little this area held. He tried to get the fire going, which failed after the first few attempts, cursing the fire under his breath, and quickly taking it back when the flames ignited and warmth filled the room. He bathed in the warmth letting the heat warm his skin and listening to the now all too familiar crackle and pop of the fire. He looked at his watch once more able to clearly see the time in the light. _7:30 am, 6 hours of sleep, not that bad which is kind of a sad thing to say _He thought to himself not that anyone was here to hear him if he said it aloud. Wondering why he pulled himself out of bed every day, he reached in his bag pulling out a can of peaches and his can opener. Twisting it and hearing the noise it made being oddly loud felt so weird, so different. It was hard to get use to the silence the world held, after always hearing so much ambient noise the silence was almost deafening at first but as with most things you just get used to it after some time. He obviously had not gotten used to quite yet, but he was sure it wouldn't be long before he was used to the silence. So as he ate he hummed an old song he used to love but it just made it worse, so he just ate in silence. Complete Silence.

_A/N on the off chance someone is reading a fan fiction based on an indie game, Hello! This is my first fanfiction after a failed diablo fan fiction a few years ago that I lost interest in after a chapter. So two years later here I am trying another fan fiction based on a recently released indie game called The Long Dark. It's a really fantastic survival game that I really love so far and I had an idea to make a story out of it, as I thought the very vague story and interesting world would be great for a novel of sorts and since I have no prior skills in writing and no possible way of making a novel I'm posting it here on , where you can find anything. So if you are reading and you liked it or not tell me why in the reviews so I can learn and hopefully be better at writing. Thanks a bunch._


	2. Chapter 2: Sarah

_**Chapter 2: Sarah**_

The cold wind whipped at his face and some snow fell of his nose. He wanted to remove it but he did not dare move as not to mess up this shot. He was hungry and low on ammo, he needed to make this shot count. Aiming right at the head of the deer he pulled the trigger of his rifle and a bang ripped apart the silence. A split second later the deer dropped, and will ran slung his rifle over his shoulder and ran over to the motionless deer. _I gotta hurry this up,_ Will unsheathed his knife and began to skin the deer. He felt blood run around his knees as he began to harvest the meat and started to put in his red stained bag he used for hunting. In half an hour he was done and he started to head back to his current base of operations.

He was walking through the forest, when he heard a shrieking from the west. _What the hell was that? _Contemplating whether to investigate or not, he ultimately decided to follow through with the latter. He crouched down to try to avoid any unwanted attention and ran towards the source. Just before the break in the tree line, Will stopped and ducked behind a tree and slowly peered out. There was a little girl crying in the snow, and she looked around and shrieked again. Will scanned the area and noticed two wolfs slowly circling and closing in. _This doesn't look quite like a trap, but its two early to tell_. So Will waited and watched, after a minute he took out his rifle and checked how many shells he had. _Four, splendid, _he aimed his rifle at one of the wolves. The wolves only got closer and no one else showed so will took the shot. The girl screamed again as the shot rang through the air. The wolf dropped to the ground, and the other turning to find the source of the killing noticed Will and immediately charged toward him. Will prepared and turned around his rifle and as the wolf leapt in the air smashed the butt of the rifle into the wolf's snout. The wolf fell and scrambled to get up, but Will immediately drew his knife and sunk it into the wolf's skull.

Will stepped back and took a breather looking at the carnage. He ran over to the girl, noticed she was bleeding from her leg.

"Can you walk?" Will said with urgency in his voice. The girl just looked up and stared at him. "CAN YOU WALK" Will shouted at her.

"I don't think I can, the wolf snapped and bit my leg. It hurts a lot" The girl said with a timid voice.

"Ugghhh shit, ok I will have to carry you." With this he slung his rifle over his shoulder. Picked up the girl and put her in his back. "Hold on tight ok. Try not to fall if anything happens otherwise I won't be able to come back for you. He started back towards the cabin office.

It was about mid day by the time he saw the office. His legs were starting to go numb from the cold and his back was sore from carrying around the girl. The walk back was almost silent, besides the girl's quiet moans of pain and Will's heavy breathing. He unlocked the door and walked inside, shutting the door behind him. He lay the girl down on the couch and went to get the first aid box. He set it down on the couch next to her.

"How bad is it?" Will asked hoping he could treat it.

"Pretty bad I think." She rolled up her pant leg to reveal a rather deep bite wound.

"Ok im pretty sure this is treatable to an extant but it will hurt like a bitch for a while. Ok?"

"Ok"

Will nodded and took out the hydrogen peroxide and started to poor it over the wound. She let out a muffled scream and tears started to roll down her face. He pulled out the needle and thread and began to sew it closed. More tears and muffled screams and groans came during this process. In about 5 minutes he was done, and began to pack away most of the medical supplies.

"Here take these" He handed her two bottles of pills and a bottle of water. "Painkillers and antibiotics they will help a lot, trust me."  
>She took them gladly. "Thanks," She paused to take the pills, "for everything mister, you been a lot more kind than most people I have met recently." She said with a distressed look on her face like she was remembering horrible things.<p>

"No problem, I have seen enough death recently and i'm not going to let another kid die before my very eyes. I'm Will by the way." He held out his hand.

Shaking his hand, she said "Im Sarah"

"So have you been alone through all this?" Will questioned.

"No I was with a few other people until a group of masked men came and attacked us. I was separated from them and I just kept running until the wolves came and you showed up. I don't know what happened to them all though…" She trailed off as her eyes wandered to the floor.

Will looked at his watch _12:30. _"Are you hungry?"

"Very" She replied.

He got up and walked over to a cupboard. Opening it he took two cans of beans. He opened both and stuck spoons in them and handed one to Sarah.

"Thank you so much" she started chowing down on the beans.

He handed her a machete, "I'll be back in an hour if anything besides me tries and succeeds in getting in, don't hesitate, aim for the head."

"I'm eleven and you are giving me a machete?" she responded taking the machete

"The world is different now, I'll be back soon." He stepped outside, locking the door behind him.

-Later-

Will awoke from another nightmare with a jump. His watch read _5:26 _he sighed and was about to rest his head when he heard screaming from outside.

"Get inside right now!"

"We can't the doors locked!"

"THEN FUCKING BUST IT OPEN! IM NOT GOING TO GET EATEN TODAY"

_The front door is chained but the back door… _The kicking came then it finally busted open, but only a hair.

"ITS FUCKING CHAINED WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO!?"

"CHECK AROUND BACK!"

By now he was hearing gunshots and snarls over the howling wind. Sarah bolted upwards awakening from her slumber.

"What's going on?"

"shhh don't talk" Will replied.

He readied his rifle and aimed for the back door. It burst open and the two men ran inside and shut the door behind them.

"Holy shit, that was close."

"Yeah, god I hate those fucking wolves"

"DON'T FUCKING MOVE" Will shouted at the two intruders.

"WOAH, don't shoot man please don't shoot."

"DROP YOUR WEAPPONS KICK THEM AWAY AND GET ON YOUR FUCKING KNEES"

The second was compliant but the first was not.

"I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I WILL SHOOT YOU IN THE STOMACH AND THROW YOU TO THE FUCKING WOLVES"

He complied a few seconds later.

"Why are you here?"

"We didn't think there was anyone here and we just wanted a safe place from the wolves we'll leave."

Will studied both of them. The first man had a look in his eyes and he noticed his hand slowly moving towards his back pocket. He pulled out a gun but Will shot first. Blood splattered all over the wall behind him. The second man rolled and ducked behind a couch firing off a few shots towards Will. Will didn't want to waste anymore ammo so he looked around for a different option. He quickly grabbed a chair and threw it towards the shooter, and pulled out his knife in rushed towards him, he sunk his knife into the man's neck. When the man stopped struggling and slumped over, Will pulled the knife out and wiped it on the ground to clean the blood off of it before putting back in its sheath. He took the gun and ammo off the corpse and looted both for all their provisions. After words he dragged both outside about 50ft from the cabin office and left them there to keep the wolves at bay. As he walked back in he wiped the blood of his hands with his jeans, Sarah looked disgusted.

"You just killed those guys…" She said timidly

Will looked her straight in the eyes and saw the fear that resided in them.

"I know it's terrible but like said earlier, the world is different and they would have killed us."


	3. Chapter 3: Wolf Attack

**A/N (**_Thanks to a few people commenting on the story I will take your thoughts into account in this chapter and those coming in the future Also just to make sure you know this is a separate Will from the one in the game._**)**

Chapter 3: Wolf Attack

As Will changed clothes in the restroom, the creaking of Sarah moving around the cabin still left him uneasy. His old clothes had worn out and he found a new set in surprisingly good condition. Now sporting a trench coat over a warm sweater and several shirts, a pair of thick jeans, and mountain boots, Will looked himself over in the mirror. His beard was really growing in now and his hair was getting longer as well. He was starting to look like a mountain man, which wasn't that inaccurate taking account from his current life style. Staring back at the blue eyed reflection he was lost in thought for at least a minute, until a large crash snapped him back to reality. Instinctively he drew his machete and ran through the door.

A wolf had crashed through the door and two others followed behind it. One pounced towards Sarah and Will dashed towards it and drove the machete through the wolf's neck. Quickly he pulled it out and swung it backwards at a leaping wolf, killing it instantly. The third wolf caught him by surprise and clenched its jaws down onto Wills arm. Yelling out in pain, he dropped the machete and promptly launched a fist right into the snout of the beast. The wolf yelped and fell back, and Will wasted no time in grabbing it by the neck, and snapping it in a second.

"Sarah, go get the med kit." He ordered, and she obeyed. She rushed upstairs to retrieve it, while Will tried to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, and was not very successful as blood soaked his clothes. Sarah bounded down the stairs handing the med kit to Will. Opening it he took the hydrogen peroxide, a needle, and thread, for sewing it closed. Opening the bottle he poured over the wound and nearly screamed in pain, and almost dropping the bottle. He set in down and he started sewing it up the pain increased each passing second and he started to groan. Even more blood left his body, and by the time he was done, he was very light headed. He grabbed the gauze wrap and a large bandage. Setting the bandage down on the wound he pressed down on it and started wrapping his up. By the time he was done, he was sitting in his own blood.  
>"Sarah is door broken?" He question, as he was not fit to travel. Sarah got up and tried to close the door, but it kept opening back up, due to its damaged state. She thought for a second and grabbed the couch and tried to drag it over to block the door. Will got up to help, and with some effort and pain tolerance, they blocked the door with couch. Will didn't make it five more minutes before he passed out at the top of the stairs.<p>

-_One Month Ago_-

Will slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He was staring out the front windshield of a car at a tree. He was discombobulated, his brain not registering what had happened. Blood slowly dripped down from his throbbing head, dripping upwards. He realized he was upside down and his brain took in everything that was happening. He looked to his left and saw his brother also hanging, only held by his seatbelt, and his door was blocked by a pickup truck that he presumed crashed into them. To his right he saw nothing but trees and snow.

"Hey… Sam... you alright?" He asked, but received no answer. "Sam… come on answer me." He reached over and shook his limp brother. "Sam… Sam come on we have get out of this mess and find help," He his brother did not respond in anyway. "Sam! Wake up! Come on!" He was starting to raise his voice. "Fuck! Come on, WAKE UP!" He still got no response.

He reached up and tried to unbuckle himself, but it was jammed. He felt for his pocket knife in his coat, and when it wasn't there he look around for it. Below him he saw the glint of silver beside his phone, wallet, and a pack of cigarettes, and tried to reach it, stretching his arm as much as possible, until he felt the cold metal handle. He grabbed it and reached up to his seat belt and started to cut through it. He braced himself for the most likely painful landing when he felt himself loosening up. He heard a snap and he fell and landed with a painful thud. Groaning he rolled on his back turned towards the door and kicked. The door opened a little more with each kick, and after five it flew off its hinges, sliding in the snow. He got up a little bit, and cut his brother down, catching him as he fell.

He suddenly started to feel warmer and smelt smoke, then he hurriedly dragged his brother from the wreckage. Dragging him a few tress away he sat him up by a tree.

"Sam come on… Answer me please…" He pleaded for a response but never got one. He felt for a pulse, and when he felt one, he was overjoyed his brother wasn't dead. He looked back at the wreckage and at his brother again. "I'm going to see what I can get."

He limped over to the pickup, which was on its side unlike their upside down like their Jeep. He looked through the cracked windshield and saw a family inside, a Father, mother, and two boys looking about twelve years in age. He kicked the windshield and it shattered. He felt for a pulse from the man, and when he felt his heart beat, he unbuckled him and dragged him out. He did the same with the woman, and dragged her out too when he felt her heart beat. Setting her down next to the man he went back in to the kids. One of them didn't have their seatbelt on and was laying on the other one, neck twisted in an odd way. He sighed, picked him and carried him out setting him away from the presumed parents in case they were to wake up. The other kid was still very much alive, so Will carried him out too. Setting him down next to his mother, he shook the man a bit.

"Sir? Sir I need you to wake up," The man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Will. He looked around and his eyes widened as he took in his surroundings.

"Who are you? What happened? Is my family okay?" The man frantically questioned. He tried to get up but failed.

"I'm Will, You crashed into my car and we both ended up off road. I pulled your family out as well, after I got me and my brother out of our car." Will replied in a calm voice. "Are the boys yours?" The man nodded. Will sighed, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but… one of your boys is dead." Tears started to drip down the man's face.

"What? No, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening…" He started to cry even more.

"I'm so sorry…" Will somberly replied, "I will be back in a few minutes, try to wake your wife and other child up." He limped over to his brother, and tried to wake him again. Sam's eyes jolted open.

"Will? What the fuck happened?" Will embraced him thanking god his brother wasn't dead.

"Car accident. I woke up a few minutes ago, dragged you out and helped the family in the other car. Can you stand?" Sam nodded. "Alright good get whatever you can from the car I'm going to check on the others." Will limped back over to the others and saw the woman and the man consoling the surviving boy. The woman had curly blonde hair and was in a puffy winter coat, while the man had short black hair and donned a torn up trench coat.

"Hey are you folks alright?" The parents turned around and looked at Will, their eyes were both red from tears. The woman whispered something to the man and he got up and walked over to Will.  
>"My wife thanks you for saving us, If you could watch our son while we collect our belongings from the truck, we would very much appreciate it." Will nodded.<p>

"I can do that, sure." The parents headed into the car and Sam came over to Will carrying to duffle bags.

"What a mess," Sam said and Will nodded in agreement.

_A/N Thanks for reading, review if you want._


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